Pot Holes 2014

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 14:14
Pot Holes 2014 - Ben 10

The US has suffered its worst winter in decades. The result of the punishment of weather and grit are thousands of pot holes. Even here with the persistant rain these past few months the roads are a mess. The relevant authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are chasing their tails filling them in. And costing millions for only temporary repairs.

The only winners are the garages fixing punctures or replacing with new tyres, supplying new wheels and more serious defects affecting steering or suspension.

Why haven't the brightest minds come up with a road surface that can resist this punishment, that isn't too expensive and will last winter and summer conditions. Do the Scandinavian countries suffer in the same way?

Come on boffins, we don't need another vacuum cleaner design, I think that's been achieved, we need to address this world wide problem.

Maybe HJ should highlight in his column.

Edited by Ben 10 on 22/02/2014 at 14:15

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 14:39
Pot Holes 2014 - jc2

They have-drove along a road made of it last week-it's called "CONCRETE!".

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 14:49
Pot Holes 2014 - SteveLee

Boring holes into solid stone, filling them with water and then freezing the rock will crack it clean in half.The expansion as water freezes will destory practically anything that is porous enough to allow moisture into the structure. Concrete has a terrible friction co-efficient and is noisy as a road surface to both the drivers and passers by.

That said, with today's technology surely they can come up with some sort of rubberised concrete - I'm sure they can - it's all about cost. The motorist is a cash-cow - as a government, you wouldn't want to go spending money on motorists - they might get used to it. and demand more!

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 15:17
Pot Holes 2014 - Collos25

The new concrete autobahns in Germany are quiet .

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 15:13
Pot Holes 2014 - Ben 10

I know there are CONCRETE roads.

But they errode as well, as many of the roads I've seen on US news programmes have CONCRETE surfaces, and are littered with pot holes. but not on the same scale as a Tarmac surface. I'm talking about the Tarmac sort of surface we have predominantly here.

Have you driven on that kind of surface lately? Then you must of come across the pot holes I've highlighted and experienced. Either that, or you actually live on a motorway and don't veer off it to experience what we mortals have to.

Edited by Ben 10 on 22/02/2014 at 15:14

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 17:13
Pot Holes 2014 - corax

Either that, or you actually live on a motorway and don't veer off it to experience what we mortals have to.

Where do you live?

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 19:12
Pot Holes 2014 - focussed

There are many proven repair systems that local authorities could use that would give a better result that Fred and Albert dumping some cold mix tarmac into the hole and raking and rolling it. A month later the water has got into it, and it is breaking up again.

But hey, what the heck, we repaired it didn't we? And don't you dare complain otherwise we would have to put the council tax up again.

That is the attitude.

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 19:21
Pot Holes 2014 - barney100

Romans had concrete which set under water and accurate weather forecasts, ''whats it doing outside?'' ''Hail Ceasar''

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 22:06
Pot Holes 2014 - galileo

There are many proven repair systems that local authorities could use that would give a better result that Fred and Albert dumping some cold mix tarmac into the hole and raking and rolling it. A month later the water has got into it, and it is breaking up again.

But hey, what the heck, we repaired it didn't we? And don't you dare complain otherwise we would have to put the council tax up again.

That is the attitude.

A couple of years ago I contacted our council, suggesting they adopt the improved methods which had been found more effective and economical by a nearby council. Response was "We passed this to our highways department but they will stay with the current practice".

One wonders if brown envelopes are involved when superior and cheaper methods are rejected in this way.

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 23:13
Pot Holes 2014 - focussed

There are many proven repair systems that local authorities could use that would give a better result that Fred and Albert dumping some cold mix tarmac into the hole and raking and rolling it. A month later the water has got into it, and it is breaking up again.

But hey, what the heck, we repaired it didn't we? And don't you dare complain otherwise we would have to put the council tax up again.

That is the attitude.

A couple of years ago I contacted our council, suggesting they adopt the improved methods which had been found more effective and economical by a nearby council. Response was "We passed this to our highways department but they will stay with the current practice".

One wonders if brown envelopes are involved when superior and cheaper methods are rejected in this way.

I think that local authorities reluctance to repair potholes and to maintain the roads in their charge in some sort of order has more to do with the mindset influenced by the green eco slime that infests local authorities everywhere "keep the potholes-slows down the traffic - if they damage themselves or their vehicles we just deny it - and then it's cheaper to pay the compensation if we have to rather than to repair the roads in the first place" Job done!

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 23:21
Pot Holes 2014 - artill

I was told this by my local authority. Pot holes and bad parking slow down the traffic, and are therefore something they like. Seems crazy, but thats what we are up against

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Sat 22 Feb 2014 23:16
Pot Holes 2014 - Avant

Road surfaces are bound to deteriorate in this sort of weather, but you would think that they would crumble and be uneven (which tyres can generally cope with) rather than creating these ridiculous deep, shar-edged craters (whuch they often can't).

Does any of our experts know why potholes happen, rather than the general crumbling which woud seem more logical?

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